


It Helps Where I Cannot

by AbsurdlyHappyAboutStorms



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Wields Mjolnir, One Shot, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 12:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17488010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsurdlyHappyAboutStorms/pseuds/AbsurdlyHappyAboutStorms
Summary: Bucky lifts Mjolnir, based on a pretty specific prompt by tumblr user justiceanders.





	It Helps Where I Cannot

He couldn't have heard them right. He had picked it up just yesterday.

"No one else can pick it up?" he asked.

"Only Vision," Thor replied.

"Oh."

He made to sound like he understood. Like it was a simple fact. He didn't and it wasn't. The meaning of "worthiness" was a little vague, but it shouldn't be taken lightly, either. Mjolnir had judged _him_ worthy? He looked at Steve. Why couldn't he lift it?

"Have you ever tried, Steve?"

He hesitated. "Yeah, but I couldn't pick it up."

Bucky looked at him with a near deadpan expression, except for one half-cocked eyebrow saying _I don't believe you_. But Steve stuck by it and Thor stayed out of it.

That was the end of it for them, but Bucky thought about it all the time. The first time he had picked it up was no big deal. He just wanted to look at it. Now when he saw Thor with it he couldn't help running by the same questions again. Was he _really_ worthy? What does that mean? Could it make a mistake?

Then he found it again just laying on a coffee table in the Tower. No one around. So he thought. He eyed the hammer almost suspiciously as he walked past it to check for any of the others before hurrying back. It was heavy, but not that heavy. He set it down and picked it back up, bracing himself for resistance that never came, and then gave it a few swings. As that familiar metallic ring filled the room a wide grin spread over his face. He could lift Mjolnir.

The next time it was on a bar stool. It had been a while- long enough to start wondering again- so he looked around to see if anyone was there and slowly approached it. His face was stoic if not grim, but once it was in his hand again the same smile slowly came back. Seeing it in _his_ hand was almost surreal. Metal on metal softly sounded out as he switched hands and the smile widened.

Every time, the same thing. Doubt and thankfully being proven wrong. Mjolnir never once refused to move for him. It was a little odd that Thor just left it laying around like he did, but he wasn't complaining. Even after all he'd done, there must be something good in him if Mjolnir wasn't impassive like it was for almost every other person in the world.

 

"You've been leaving your hammer everywhere," Tony said, a few particularly odd places coming to mind. "Do you want a coat hanger or something?"

Thor barely hesitated as he lifted his coffee mug. "No."

"How come? Don't you lose it sometimes? Cause I've never seen you summon it inside the Tower."

"It helps where I cannot."

Tony took a breath, about to respond, but cut himself off. Just another cryptic saying of a god.

 

There it was again. The super soldier's footsteps clicked on the kitchen floor as he approached the hammer's spot by the toaster. After all this time there was still some doubt in his mind, some quiet voice telling him that this time it wouldn't work, that this time Mjolnir would refuse him, but he still reached out to take it from the counter. The weight and balance of it was familiar enough now he was confident in using it. It rang softly as he swung it at imaginary enemies and flipped it in the air, spinning as he swung it in a circle around- ...to the doorway. Where Steve stood.

They looked at each other without a word, the ringing already less than an echo. Then Steve smiled. Looked down at the ground having completely forgotten what he came for. The hammer was motionless at Bucky's side until Steve looked up again, and then, like a baseball, he tossed it.

**Author's Note:**

> I believe the fan theory that Steve is capable of lifting Mjolnir as well based on that scene early in AoU in Stark Tower. I think Mjolnir is a yes or no kind of thing, not a kinda/maybe and Thor _had_ offered the kingdom of Asgard to anyone who lifted Mjolnir just minutes before. He and Thor were the only sober ones present and he knew the implications.


End file.
